Royal Gloucestershire Hussars
Percy Daniel Ford was born at Newent in the first quarter of 1888. He was the son of George and Sarah Ford of Rudford and the husband of Betha Ford (née Stephens) from Gloucester. He was the grandson of Daniel Ford, of Bridge Farm, Rudford. Before joining the army Percy was an asylum attendant and lived at 34 Hartington Road, Gloucester.
Percy was a Private in the 1/3rd Royal Gloucestershire Hussars (RGH) Yeomanry, the training regiment of the RGH formed in 1915.
He died of emphysema in South Tidworth Military Hospital in Wiltshire on 26 November 1915 aged 27, four months after his marriage to Betha. He is buried in the only Commonwealth War Grave in Rudford (St. Mary) Churchyard. His coffin was brought to Gloucester by train and then on a gun carriage, drawn by black horses with black plumes, to Rudford by a troop of Hussars. A volley was fired over the grave by his escorts and it is said that most of the village came to the funeral.
He is also commemorated on the RGH Memorial on Miller’s Green at Gloucester Cathedral. His grave is still cared for by relatives in the village and poppy crosses are placed by his family, the Cheltenham & Gloucester Branch of The Western Front Association and by the congregation of St Mary’s Church at a ceremony on Remembrance Sunday.
Researched by Cecil Ballantine February 2017